Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Drama

Jeffrey was walking down the street, with thousands of others. They walked passed posters of the president. "The man for you." The text read. The president was tall, atleast six foot, he had a round head, brown eyes, redish brown hair, and white, with a tan. It was election day. The president had been president for many years, he was president for most of Jeffrey's life. The president's name is Sam. It took them half an hour to get there. The entire time Jeffrey was reconsidering what he was about to do. As soon as he got there, he chicken out, and voted for sam. He was considering voting for Sam's rival James, but he didn't truly felt safe doing so. There had been times where the voting booths had been hacked revealing to everyone who voted for James. These people were harassed, this seemed to happen every election, but it didn't happen all the time. Sam had always won with a landslide. He then made the journey back, assumed, assumed that he went with the crowd. He didn't agree with James veiws, I don't anyone could, but atleast it was someone different in office, proving we could win, and that the system wasn't rigged. That's all Jeffrey truly wanted. 

Jeffrey finally got to the apartment complex, the same poster was everywhere. "The man for you." Over, and over again. No matter where he was there was atleast one of those posters, but the amount increases as the election gets closer. He walked up the staircase. He moved slowly, he felt as of he had no energy, but at the same time he was well rested. He already knew the outcome. "Sam has won by a landslide." This always happened. Sam has severed for atleast five terms, which was twenty years. Jeffrey was just twenty two. When Sam was first elected it was considered a democratic revolution. Sam was a democratic socialist, he had created the minimum wage, and the maximum income, on his first year. He didn't truly know this, but that was what he was taught. Near the end of his first term he had made health care free, college free, created the public school system, and had strengthen the economy. On the first year of his second term he abolished private companies, and created a system where the workers elected the management. At the end of his second term he had created a progressive income tax, and the progressive market. In the progressive market the price of products was determined by your income bracket, the higher you were, the more you payed. On his third term he had created the ratoin system, evenyone was entitled to a certain amount of something, and after that they could by more of that item. On his fourth term he didn't create any reforms, rather he strengthen the reformed systems, but on his five year he declared war on violence. This abolished the right to own any weapons, and militarized the police. On his first term the media heavily criticized him, but now they only praised him. 

I finally got to my apartment, the walls were white, and the floor was wooden. I layed on the couch. I then turned on the TV to watch a movie. I couldn't find anything good on, so I went on my phone. I scrolled through VA, our country's social media. I saw Kevin had posted something. "Is it just me, or does James seem like a strawman?" Kevin asked VA. Kevin was who I supported for manager. He was smart, and liked by many. Not to mention It was a change from Jeremy. Jeremy had been manager since Sam's second term. Two days after the presidential election was the capitalist elections. The manager of our shop joined the ceo of state companies, who made all the market decisions. Yes, there were a few running the market, but it was different from the one percent in capitalism, because we elected them. Our election were not as decided as the presidential election, but some how Jeremy kept winning.
I then left VA, and searched up a movie. I then watched that. Every election day was a day off. I was a mechanic, although nobody own cars, there were public busses. 

The next day after work, I was on the couch, when I got a notification. I looked at my phone. "Mobilization Campaign" It was an investment opportunity. I click on it. "Uncle Sam has started a campaign to give everyone a car. He plans on using the tax money to pay for it, but that will take a month to prepare. If you invest in this you'll be put in line earlier then those who didn't." Jeffrey thought for a moment. "If more people have cars, then there more money to be made." He said to himself. He then invested twenty dollars into the campaign. Jeffrey didn't have alot of money, that twenty dollars was equal to two hours of work.An hour later Jeffrey looked up the Mobilization Campaign. Despite only being started an hour a go, it raised enough money to buy on person a car. He look what place he was in. "One hundredth?" He said surprised. This was great news, because it ment he would be one of the first people to own a car. 

The next day he was at work. At three pm the work stopped. They had then formed into two long lines. They only could have two ballot boxes. After five minutes for waiting, Jeffrey put his vote in. An hour later it had been announced Kevin won. This was crazy news, but expected. It ment that the system wasn't rigged, atleast in the capitalist election, so there was something they could control. He would take his seat in a week.

After work I was checking my stocks. "Two hundredth!" Jeffrey yelled. I look it up, and found out the ranks are based on how much you gave. Jeffrey walked around the room, think of what to do. The was an option to give up a certain amount of your hourly wage, but was it worth it. He then decided he can do without a dollar an hour. Every hour he worked, not only would he have to pay a tax, but he also had to give up a dollar. "It's for a noble cause." He said to himself.

As soon as Kevin took his seat, he was pushed out of it. "We believe that Kevin may have bribed some people, so we are redoing the vote, but we'll remove any vote that we believe was faked." A officer announced. We then went throw the process again, but this time, two hours later, some how Jeremy won by a landslide. "So the system is rigged." I said in my head. The sad thing is that Kevin may have been a really good manager. 

Jeffrey was on the couch watching the news when he saw something that caught his attention. "Because of the westward scandal, the government will now have to approve candidates." The anchor said. I remember when I was fifteen Sam argued. "This time it will be different, because the market, and the government are two separate entities." Now he has handcuffed the market too him. I then got on VA an made this post. "Anyone else remember when Sam argued it would be different because the government wouldn't become the market." With the news linked to the post. "He's fighting corruption." One commenter said. "That was in the past, we're in the present." Another said. The notifications came as frequently as the pop of popcorn while it's in the microwave. After the fiftieth notification telling me that I'm wrong I deleted the post. An hour later I checked the list, and saw that they had moved me down. "One thousandth!" I yelled. Jeffrey had forgotten about the post, so he didn't think it was because of the post. "I can't sacrifice any more then one dollar." He said to himself. He then add ten dollars to his investment to raise his place. 

The next day at work someone approached me. "Hey, we all know that the election was rigged, so why don't we go on a strike. A ton of people have agreed too." He said. "What time?" I asked. "It starts in an hour, we'll provide you with a sign, you just have to leave with the rest of us." He answered. "Ok." I replied. An hour went by slowly, but as soon as it came, mist of the shop workers left. This gave me the confidence to join them. We blocked all entries, and yelled. "Rigged!"

After the demonstration, we all went home, so that Jeremy had time to think it over. I was watching the news. "Westward is having a strike." The news anchor said. "Dispite the fact that Jeremy was democratically elected, a bunch of workers felt cheated. "Not a bunch! Most!" I yelled at the TV. "Here's a post from VA. 'Well if they have enough money to stop working, why not change them more in the progressive market.'" Jeffrey couldn't believe what he was hearing, we had always been for reform, but now we're against it.

We wouldn't go to work until Jeremy had left, and was replaced by Kevin. The whole day I was receiving messages from people angry at me. "We need our buses fixed, yet you all strike." Every post mentioning the strike described as hateful. I decided to go to the store to buy hotdogs. As I walked people starred at me. When I got to the cashier he said. "Thirteen dollars." "But it's always been eight." I replied. "Well your bracket changed." He answered. As soon as I hear that I left, without buying anything. I bought hotdogs at the free market for nine dollars. The free market were small business, who didn't have to follow the progressive system, but they had to pay more in taxes.  They were own by one family, or a few friends. I was still starred at, but atleast it was cheaper. 

When I returned home, I checked my place in line. "Last!" I shouted. I then payed more attention to the list. All of the workers striking were near the bottom. I then checked the top, and noticed that Jeremy was in tenth place. This confirmed Jeffrey's supposition that Jeremy, and Sam were working together. Then I noticed the entire market ceo took up the top twenty. "Sam has unofficial of the entire progressive market." I posted my findings on VA, but this time I ignored the comments. I clicked on them for a second just to clear the notification. "I'm gonna kill you." One commenter said. "The people making more money can invest more gasp." Another commenter said. That one actually got me to question my theory, so I deleted it. I then did some more research, and found that the top three hundred were all politicians. 

The next day we received horrible news. "All of the westward protesters are fired." Jeremy announced on VA. A moment later I got a private message. "You're fired." Jeremy said. This was terrible news, I barely could afford to stike for a week, now  I had no job. Then I got message. "Dear Jeffrey, we know you have been fired, and we need workers to build the cars. All the other stickers have been sent the same message. The address is westward 10095. You'll be making minimum wage. Of you appect there will be no negotiations, but you will be moved back to the correct bracket to the progressive market. Show up for work on Wednesday." This was great news. It was a move down, but the price would move down with me. Before the message I feard I would have to survive on ratoins. Tomorrow was Wednesday. 

I decided to pull out of the investment, but they wouldn't let me take my money back. I could only stop giving them money, not take it back. After pulling out the government's lawyers contacted me. "Hello Jeffrey, we would like you to continue the investment, if you don't we may not be able to pay you to build cars." I took the hint, resigned up. "You made the right choice." He said a moment later. "I don't think I'll pull out as soon as you get the taxes need." I messaged. "Well that's faor enough." He messaged a moment later.

The next day I went to work, it was a little ways out, but the bus got me there just fine. It was a assembly line. For eight hours, I did the exact same job. My job was to pass the hood of the car to the guy next to me. We had to have built twenty cars after the eight hours. I was supposed to be making eight dollars an hour, that's the minimum wage, but because of this investment that I don't even want apart of, I'm only making seven dollars an hour. This made Jeffrey angry, but he had to keep that to himself, he had to be professional. 

When Jeffrey returned home, he turned on the news. "Good news for failing businesses. The government is willing to buy small businesses for more then there worth. In a rare moment of agreement, James has announced his support of the plan." The anchor said. James was such a weird politician, if there was opinion no one had, or dream to support he had it, yet when there are two opinions, James will agree with Sam. For example, their was a event called The Eastwood Shooting, this fuelled the war on violence, yet James supported the shooter, even bring some of the shooter's ideas up for debate; however James also supported the war on violence, despite the fact he had argued for free guns, and the abolishment of background checks. 

As time went on, people stopped starring at me, and the prices went down with my income, but they didn't account for the one dollar I'm missing, so it was more expensive then it should have been. More, and more shops joined the progressive market, soon it was hard to find a sign saying free market shop. I think I know why Sam wants to get rid of them. If the price is higher at the progressive market then at a free market store, then they'll shop their, now they don't have that option. Free market stores all had different prices, but they all revolved around similar prices. Soon the free market was bought, and the progressive market system can work as it was planned. The idea was the rich paying more will pay for the poor, but that didn't work out, so they had to use subsides to pay for the poor, which raised our taxes, but now that the progressive market worked, the subsides won't be need, and sure enough, Jeffrey payed less in taxes.

A month later I pulled out of the investment as the taxes payed for it. The top one thousand got there cars within the week, and we were making more for the rest. "Breaking news, the wages for mechanics have gone up by a dollar." The news said. "That should have been me making a dollar more! I had that job, then they took it away! That's the whole reason I invested into this scam!" I yelled in my head. Jeffrey wanted to shout every bad word known to man, but he couldn't be to loud, because his neighbors could hear him when he shouted. 

As Jeffrey continued to work their his wage never got any better, they never got to elect there managers, and the conditions got worse, and worse. People actually started to get injured, but no new workers were brought in, so they had to do more work for the same pay. Jeffrey soon joined the dead when he had a heart attack on the job. The medics took him away, but instead of taking him to a hospital, they buried him with the rest of the fallen workers. 

The factory was merely a prototype of a force labor camp.